By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

TURNER – The Leavitt Hornets were the ones missing two starters, but it was the Oxford Hills Vikings who had some role players step up big Tuesday night.

Sophomore Colton Weymouth came off the bench to score 20 points and senior Kyle Raymond added 16 as the Vikings dispatched an undermanned Hornets squad, 66-41.

“When your best players don’t have their best game, obviously you need your other players to step up, and I thought Colton and Kyle really helped us tonight, especially scoring-wise,” Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam said.

Leavitt (2-6) was playing without starting point guard Matt Nash and starting forward Tyler Millett, who have both been suspended from the team for a week for violation of team rules. That put a lot of the offensive load on the shoulders of Cameron Angell (20 points, 11 rebounds, four assists).

“We came over here to cover not only Angell but Nash and Millett, who had scored the games that I had scouted,” Graffam said. “We were going to pack it right in, but when we saw those two kids weren’t there, we decided to press and go out and get them.”

The Vikings (5-4) figured Angell would get his points anyway. They just didn’t want to allow others open shots.

“We didn’t do a very good job of that, despite the fact that they only had 15 points at halftime,” Graffam said. “They just didn’t shoot very well.”

Leavitt shot just 14 percent from the field in the first half. A big reason for that was that the Vikings, with Raymond, Ben Ryerson, Russell Estes and Ethan Sutton taking turns guarding Angell, shut out Angell in the first quarter on their way to a 14-6 lead.

“You just can’t shoot like that and be competitive,” Leavitt coach Mike Remillard said. “Having said that, I’ll say this was Cam Angell’s best all-around game he’s played for us all year.”

Leavitt concentrated its defensive efforts on stopping the Vikings’ two top scorers, Ben Ryerson (six points, five assists) and Chris McVety (seven points, 12 rebounds), and did a pretty good job of it. But Weymouth and Raymond both hit 3-pointers to get the offense going in the first quarter, and Weymouth added another trey in the second quarter as the Vikings stretched the margin to double-digits, 26-15 at halftime. Weymouth and Raymond combined for seven 3-pointers on the night.

“It was poor recognition of who their other shooters are,” Remillard said. “They got it going. We took away their two best dimensions. Unfortunately, the other three kicked it up.”

The Hornets had to know it wouldn’t be their night by the end of the third quarter. Their shooting, and Angell (11 points in the period), started to warm up in the period, and yet they saw the deficit go to 16. Raymond scored nine points, including a couple of 3-pointers, in the quarter to give the Vikes an insurmountable 46-30 lead at the end of the third.